Benkan Digital Booklet

BENKANJ

DJÉKADY

Balla Kouyaté: Balafon and Vocals | Mike Block: Cello and Vocals

Idrissa Kone: Percussion | Sekou Dembele: Djembe

Luke Okerlund: Electric Guitar | Michael Rivard: Electric Bass and Sintir

As soon as Balla Kouyaté was old enough to sit up, his father placed a mallett in his hand. If their 800-year-old lineage of balafon players were a baobab tree, Balla would be its newest branch. The Kouyaté family are griots from the village of Niagassola on the Mali-Guinea border. In West African culture, griots are more than just eminent musicians — they are storytellers, soothsayers and peacemakers. They transmit their oral history like a long game of telephone across generations. Djékady, Kouyaté's collaboration with Grammy-winning cellist Mike Block, puts Malian music into conversation with American folk music and contemporary styles, allowing new shoots to sprout from his family’s musical tree. Kouyaté and Block met through their work with the Silkroad Ensemble. Kouyaté has a deep appreciation for the legacy and culture of his traditional music, but wants to make music without limitations or boundaries. He found a simpatico relationship with Block. “Balla’s joy and unbridled enthusiasm is infectious,” Block says, smiling. “There is so much trust between us,” offers Kouyaté. “We treat each other like brothers.” Djékady is a Mandinka phrase that means for ”coming together is good.“ Every song is a trust fall, with each musician leaping higher and higher knowing their bandmates will catch them every time. “I’m learning to read the tea leaves of West African rhythms,” Block laughs, “but on stage, we stretch way beyond what happens in rehearsal. It’s always wild and revelatory.”

LYRICS

Tr. 3: Farewell to America

Poem "Farewell to America" published 1773:

I. Adieu, New-England's smiling meads, Adieu, th' flow'ry plain:

I leave thine op 'ning charms, O spring, And tempt the roaring main.

II. CHORUS (B Section)

In vain for me the flow'rets rise, And boast their gaudy pride,

While here beneath the northern skies

I mourn for health deny'd.

III. Celestial maid of rosy hue, Oh let me feel thy reign!

I languish till thy face I view, Thy vanish'd joys regain.

IV. Susannah mourns, nor can I bear

To see the crystal shower

Or mark the tender falling tear

At sad departure's hour;